O’Toole in line to take charge of Seattle police force

By BIR News Room
May 30, 2014

Kathleen O’Toole, onetime Boston police commissioner police commissioner (2004-2006) and former inspector general of Ireland’s police force, the Garda Inspectorate, has been nominated to be the chief of police in Seattle.
The announcement of O’Toole’s new posting was made in a Memorial Day ceremony by Seattle’s new mayor, Ed Murray. She was selected over two men who were also finalists for the job, the chiefs of police in Elk Grove, CA, and Mesa, AZ.

With boost from Richard Foundation, Challenger baseball opens season

By Bill Forry
May 30, 2014

When the first half-inning of Savin Hill Challenger baseball ended on Sunday afternoon, May 18 the pitcher, Billy Farrell, lingered on the mound for a good, long minute. A long-time civic leader and volunteer coach from Dorchester’s Meeting House Hill, Farrell had just watched the bases cleared on a base hit by an autistic boy from Dorchester— Xavier Bell— who had never before stepped onto a ball field.

PSNI wants all the tapes

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, 
ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 30, 2014
SHAWN POGATCHNIK, 
ASSOCIATED PRESS

DUBLIN – Northern Ireland police announced last month that they will sue to obtain all of the audio-taped interviews of former militants who described their wartime careers to a Boston College oral history project, a move designed to reopen scores of ``cold case’’ murder investigations in the British territory.
The police last year successfully sued Boston College to obtain 11 interviews of Irish Republican Army veterans discussing the 1972 abduction, killing, and secret burial of Jean McConville, a 38-year-old Belfast widowed mother of 10.

Larry Kirwan ruminates about the end of the run

By Sean Smith
May 30, 2014
Sean Smith

For almost exactly a quarter-century, Black 47 has made raucous, often provocative, sometimes outrageous, and always full-hearted music, a distinctive brand of Irish/Celtic rock mixed with hip-hop, jazz, and reggae and imbued with a zeal for social justice and history – and an equally robust spirit of pride, fu,n and mischief.

But in November, 25 years to the date of their first gig, the band will ring down the curtain. Among the stops on their final tour will be the Boston Irish Festival, June 6-7 at the Irish Cultural Centre of New England [see separate story], where they’ve frequently appeared over the years throughout the festival’s various incarnations.
KirwanKirwan
Recently, Black 47 co-founder, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Larry Kirwan shared his thoughts on the band’s legacy, their final album, “Last Call,” and a few more subjects, with Sean Smith of the Boston Irish Reporter.

Q. Any second thoughts or regrets within the band since announcing that this will be the last hurrah?
LK. I don’t think so. Of course, I can only speak for myself. But I reckon you make a big decision and then you go for it. Second-guessing life is no life.

A June two-step for Boston Irish Festival : Celtic potpourri will enliven ICCNE’s campus

By Sean Smith
May 30, 2014
Sean Smith

Black 47 will play at this year’s Boston Irish Festival as part of its Last Hurrah performance tour.Black 47 will play at this year’s Boston Irish Festival as part of its Last Hurrah performance tour.
There’ll be a last hurrah from Black 47, plus return engagements for Irish-world music fusion act Eileen Ivers & Immigrant Soul and indie folk-pop crossovers The Screaming Orphans when the Boston Irish Festival’s music weekend takes place June 6 and 7 at the Irish Cultural Centre of New England in Canton.
The following Saturday, June 14, will see some of New England’s best Irish step dancers flock to the ICCNE for the second annual Boston Irish Festival Feis (BIFF), a daylong competition for all ages and levels.
The Feis, co-organized with the Walpole-based Harney Academy of Irish Dancing, will cap the first year of a new format for the Boston Irish Festival, with events taking place across three weekends instead of one (the festival began on May 31 with a day of sporting events and children’s activities).

Enter Primark, into Downtown Crossing

By Peter Stevens, BIR Staff
May 30, 2014
Peter Stevens, BIR Staff

It somehow seems fitting that one of Ireland’s top retailers would choose Boston for the chain’s first foray into the United States marketplace. When the giant clothing chain, better known as Penneys to countless Irish Americans, announced that it will move into the historic downtown building that long housed Filene’s, the news reflected the evolving resurgence of the moribund “hole-in-the-ground” site.

Two "Mayor Martys" agree: Boston, Belfast now Sister Cities

By BIR News Room
May 16, 2014


Boston Mayor Marty Walsh signed a “sister city” agreement with Belfast Lord Mayor Mairtin O Muilleoir on Monday, May 7. It was one of the last official acts of the Belfast mayor, who will resume his role as a City Councillor after a one year term as Belfast's chief eleted official. (Photo courtesy Boston Mayor's office.)

Boston comes to help Connemara's Katie O'Halloran

By BIR News Room
May 16, 2014

Mayor Walsh with Katie O'Halloran in an April 19, 2014 photo in DorchesterMayor Walsh with Katie O'Halloran in an April 19, 2014 photo in Dorchester

A large gathering of supporters turned out at Dorchester’s IBEW Hall April 19 for a fundraiser to benefit Katie O’Halloran, a special needs law school  student from Connemara who was born with Femur Fibulka Ulna Syndrome (abnormalities of the thigh, forearm, and calf bones) and lives with no arms and a short, deformed left leg. The event was organized by a 14-member committee headed by Gabriel Mannion, owner of Twelve Bens Pub in Dorchester, with Mayor Martin J. Walsh as honorary chairman. The event raised more than $200,000 to cover the costs of Bebionis 3 prosthetic arms for Ms. O’Halloran. (Exclusive BIR Photo by Harry Brett)

Despite this rough patch, the bond linking BC to Ireland remains tight

By Robert P. Connolly, Special to the Reporter
May 5, 2014
Robert P. Connolly, Special to the Reporter

It surely is understatement of the highest order to say that the Gerry Adams arrest/oral history saga has to go down as a painful chapter in the history of a university as closely linked to Ireland as Boston College always has been, and is likely to remain.

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